THE GOOD ONES

Ben often made the statement that he was one "of the good guys."

The fuzzy line between good and evil was very gray. Everyone had issues. Everyone had secrets. But was any character truly "good?"

Most of the main characters, including Bernard and Jin, reaped violence on other people, including killing. The Others, as a group, endorsed kidnapping, murder and destruction of property. Jacob and MIB allowed all the criminal behavior to flourish on the island. Even the temple priests and followers were not persuaded not to kill someone.  Evil was everywhere.

Desmond killed Inman; Locke led Boone to his death; Walt burned the first life raft; Ben was a mass murderer; and Juliet played roles in the kidnapping of Claire. Sayid continued to torture people; Charlie did drugs and lied about it; Eko was a fraud.

So the list of good people is fairly small.

The children appear to be the innocent in the series. Emma and Zach, the tail section survivors, were kidnapped by the Others. They stayed with Cindy, the flight attendant, who was probably also an Other.

Rose seems to be the only beach camp survivor who did not sin on the island. She was never engaged in the mission plans. She kept to herself. She hated the leadership politics of the group. She was the lone adult on the beach. She gave advice only to people who asked for it.

In the entire whirlwind of conflict, drama and danger, Rose was the eye inside that hurricane. Interesting analogy. The one person who found peace of mind after the crash was Rose. She did not need to involve herself in the emotional issues of her fellow passengers. The island could not manipulate her because she probably knew that if her terminal cancer was gone, she was dead. And with that realization, she knew she would be alright. She was not worried that Bernard was lost on the island. She knew he would be joining her. Perhaps the island's control over the characters was solely based on the illusion that the characters had that they were still alive.

And perhaps this explains the simultaneous creation of the sideways purgatory world. Everyone created it subconsciously until their conscious would awaken with the realization that they had died.